Women Prefer Their Own Beds
by Denaliyasha
Summary: Post ep for Minimum Security. Tony isn't normal, and Kate talks to Abby about his fear of iguanas. Tate, with maybe some GAbby later.
1. Chapter 1

Women Prefer Their Own Beds

Disclaimer: Not mine. Sigh. Oh well. It's not fair, but I'll live.

A/N: Ok, yeah, starting another thing while I'm doing my other stories… to be honest, I've got major writers block on just about everything else. So then, I'm flipping channels, and I find Navy NCIS, "Minimum Security." Go iguanas! Yeah. See bottom author's note for a basic overview of that episode. If you haven't seen it, you should look at your schedule and wait for it to be on. Anyhow… here goes. Women Prefer Their Own Beds, take one.

Chapter One: Who Won?

Things had gone back to normal at NCIS. Well, ok, as normal as ever. Abby had managed to avoid having to date her friend who had verified the authenticity of the emeralds, although she did take pity on him and explain why she had so many bottles of perfume. Agent Cassidy had been sent back to Guantanamo Bay, but she was assigned to a different apartment. Who knew who now had her keys?

Tony, on the other hand, wasn't normal. He wasn't precisely depressed, but he wasn't bantering with Kate like he used to. Even Gibbs had noticed. Kate really noticed. A few days after they returned from Cuba, she headed down to chat with Abby.

"He's not being, well… Tony." Kate fiddled with one of the perfume bottles. "I think she really got to him. He's so used to being able to have any girl's heart that he couldn't stand being rejected. Not only that, but she played him. She played him like he played other people. And she pointed it out in front of Gibbs."

"Did he really like her?"

"I think so. He apologized when Gibbs made him search her room."

Abby looked slightly shocked. She put down her latest project and came to stand in front of Kate. "He apologized?"

"Yeah."

Abby noticed the slightly pained look in Kate's eyes and changed the subject. "So, learn anything on the trip to Cuba?"

Kate grinned slowly. "Tony's afraid of iguanas."

"How did you find that out?" Abby could tell there was a story behind this one.

"Ok, so it's really early in the morning, and I hear a cry from Tony's room. Logically, I assume there's trouble. I grab my gun and go running to see, so does Gibbs. We get there and Tony's got his gun pointed at an iguana." Kate grinned. "Apparently he's woken up to see it on the bed next to him and freaked." Remembering the other part of the story, Kate blushed. Abby noticed Kate's hesitation and pounced on it.

"There's something else, isn't there? He just sleeps in boxers, doesn't he?" Kate looked slightly guilty, and blushed harder. "Oh my god! He sleeps in the nude?"

Kate dissolved into laughter, and Abby joined her. "Yeah," Kate gasped out. "And when we stopped pointing our guns at the iguana and looked at Tony, we realized that he had nothing on. And then, he picks up…" here she broke of to giggle. "He picks up a chair and uses it to cover himself up. Not that we both hadn't already seen…"

"So Gibbs saw Tony with no clothes on? Oh, would I have paid to see the look on his face when he did! What did it look like?"

Kate managed to get her laughter under control. "I don't know. I was a little shocked myself, you know."

Abby leaned in conspiratorially and winked. "I know he has to work out a lot. Was it a good view?"

Kate started to reply, then cut herself off. "Hey, DiNozzo."

Abby spun around. "Hey, Tony."

He nodded to both of them. "Kate, Gibbs says we're needed upstairs. A Captain Reynolds was shot, apparently during a break in."

"Armed robbery?" Kate grabbed her coffee and followed Tony out of the lab, whispering, "Great view," to Abby.

"Well, yeah. The twist is that it appears that Reynolds was the one doing the breaking and entering."

"Oh, I see." In the elevator, Kate glanced at Tony. "Hey, you ok?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Cause you know, if you want to talk…" Kate couldn't believe she was offering to give relationship advice to DiNozzo. What the heck was she thinking?

"I said I was fine." Tony was sounding slightly angry.

"Alright. No need to snap." Kate couldn't keep the slightly hurt tone out of her voice. They bantered a lot, but they'd always been friendly. She kept silent as they headed out to process the scene.

Tony, on the other hand, was kicking himself. He didn't want to talk about it, but he shouldn't have been mean to Kate. He couldn't figure out why he was distressed about Paula Cassidy. She wasn't that wonderful; he'd only known her for a day or two… but she'd rejected him. Played him how he played women. Isn't it funny how great minds think exactly alike? And, to make matters worse, she'd mentioned it in front of Kate. That was what got him. It was easy to flirt and banter with Kate while he had a steady stream of other girlfriends to bring up if need be. Kate was one of the very few women he was merely friends with, and it was hard for him to be comfortable flirting with Kate when she'd seen him get shot down…

What was wrong with him? There had to have been something in the water down in Cuba. He'd just go out to a bar later and find a girl to go out with. Well, to sleep with at least. He shook his head. "Women," he muttered. "They're so confusing. Why can't they just act more like men so we'd understand them?"

A/N: Ok, done with this for now. The title comes from the episode. Kate sees that the dead guy had a key to Agent Cassidy's apartment, and makes a comment about women liking to use their own beds. She immediately retracts it when Tony objects. Later, they tell Gibbs, who says "Well, women prefer their own beds" and Kate looks at Tony like she knew it all. And the thing with Cassidy: Tony flirted with her, thought he was doing well, then she says (in front of Gibbs and Kate) that Tony'd bought her act. He says "What, the ice queen was an act?" and she says "No, the act was the fact that I was melting." I'm not quoting verbatim, by the way. Anyhow, they end up on the plane on the way back, and Kate kinda tries to play matchmaker between the two, and they look happy enough, which pissed me off, cause I'm a Tate shipper. Therefore, this story. Review! Gratia!


	2. Chapter 2

Women Prefer Their Own Beds

Disclaimer: I do not own it. C'mon, I'm a Tate shipper. Don't you think if I owned it they'd be together already? Yeah.

A/N: I want to finish this so Fluffy my plot eagle, will leave me alone. This is the last chapter, ok? Have fun with the fluff!

Chapter 2

"Hey, Kate, want to grab lunch?" Abby had emerged from her lab and was seated on the edge of Kate's desk.

Kate, who had been looking for a way to get out of the office all morning, smiled widely. "Yeah. Let's get out of here!"

They headed out. Gibbs noticed Tony staring blankly at his computer screen and came to stand behind him. "What is your problem, DiNozzo?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Tony's voice was flat, monotone. Gibbs glared at him as he turned to look up at his boss.

"You're not being a smartass."

"I thought that was a good thing."

"You know exactly what I mean, DiNozzo." Gibbs turned on his heel and headed out to find lunch. He called back over his shoulder, "Deal with it. I don't want to have to penalize you for pissing off Agent Todd."

Tony leaned back in his chair to think. He had been rather rude to Kate. She'd been trying to be helpful. It was just… he was a ladies man. She teased him about it, the world saw him that way. He couldn't go to KATE for relationship advice. Because at some point he'd blurt out that he was in love with her and that would be a problem. Yes, he decided, he really did love her. With that startling revelation, his chair promptly fell over backwards.

"Hey, Kate."

"Yeah?" Kate swiveled to look at Gibbs.

"What did you find out about the armed robbery/homicide thing?"

"Well, it seems that Captain Reynolds actually did surprise a burglar in his home."

McGee cut in. "But he was the one doing the breaking and entering."

Tony glared at him. "Wrong, Probie. He saw someone in his house when he knew there wasn't supposed to be anyone there, and so he climbed in through a window with his gun at the ready. Unfortunately, whoever it was killed him and made off with his stereo and about three hundred in cash."

When Gibbs left, the other special agents started putting on their coats and heading out. Tony reached out a hand to stop Kate.

"Hey, Kate?"

Kate sighed inwardly. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned to face her coworker. "Yes?"

"You said if I wanted to talk…" Tony didn't know how to finish the sentence. It was killing him to say this much, and he was hoping she'd jump in. He managed a half smile as her face lit up.

"Sure! Umm… where?" Kate's smile was huge. Tony was opening up? To her? It was a miracle.

"Would you mind coming to my apartment with me? I have to walk my dog." By this time they were standing in the elevator. When Kate nodded, he added, "We can talk while we walk, if you want."

Kate smiled, nodded again, then tilted her head to one side. "I didn't know you had a dog."

"Yeah, Shi Tsu. Brown, kinda scruffy looking. She's a sweetheart, though." Kate grinned. This was the Tony she loved.

"Shit."

"What?" Tony looked at her, startled out of his proud parent speech.

"Nothing, nothing. She sounds wonderful." Kate couldn't believe that she'd allowed herself to fall in love with Tony. She was not going to fall into the trap again. No dating coworkers. She'd promised herself. Oh, who was she fooling. She was in love with the man, and there was nothing she could do about it.

An hour later, they were wandering through a park somewhere, Tony's dog running around at the end of her leash. Kate was waiting for Tony to start the conversation, and Tony was trying to work out a way of talking about the problem without saying he was in love with her. Cause he was pretty sure she didn't love him back, and he didn't want to make a fool out of himself… again.

"So, Kate, I really am sorry for being such a jerk. It's a little embarrassing to have your boss and coworker see you naked, with your gun pointed at an iguana. And then, Agent Cassidy pretended to warm up to me, and it was normal. Completely normal for me. Flirting, dating, etc. When she said that she'd been playing, it hurt."

"But Tony, you do that all the time." Kate was making an honest attempt to understand her partner. She was just having a little trouble, that's all.

Tony stopped, ignoring the small yip of his dog as the leash pulled tight. "No, I don't do that. I flirt, yes. I try to seduce, even. But I don't do it when I don't mean it. If I flirt with someone, I flirt because I find them attractive. I don't then turn around and embarrass them in front of their boss, and I don't say that I was kidding. That's like sleeping with someone and then saying you weren't attracted to them, sorry, mistake."

Kate nodded slowly. "I think I get it. It's not that she rejected you, it's that she faked interest first and then rejected you in front of your Gibbs."

Tony nodded, and then before he could stop himself, added, "And you."

"What?"

"She did it in front of you."

"What difference does that make?" They'd resumed walking now, and Kate looked at Tony with a slightly puzzled expression.

"Look, as stupid as this sounds, I don't do women friends. You're like, an anomaly. I don't quite know how to act around you, so I do the flirting player thing. So…"

"So when that image is broken down, you feel uncomfortable. Awww, that's cute, Tony. And sensitive. Something I wouldn't have expected from you." She ruffled his hair affectionately. "So, tell me more about this dog. What's her name?"

Tony blushed bright red. "Kate."

Kate paused. "You named your dog after me?"

Tony blushed even harder, something Kate hadn't thought possible. "Why?"

He muttered something Kate couldn't hear.

"What? Speak up, Tony. I promise not to laugh."

He sighed, stopped walking, and turned to her. "Because I honest to god like you, ok?"

"Of course you do. You're my friend. We work together." Kate's brain wasn't working well.

"Not like that. I mean like, as in, love." He clapped a hand over his mouth, shocked at what he'd just said. In his mind, he was kicking himself for saying it. 'Stupid, she'll feel weird now, and she'll request a transfer or something, and then you won't ever get to even see her or talk to her or smell her hair… where did that come from?'

Kate, meanwhile, was trying to process what he'd blurted out. 'Love? He's in love with me? Oh, my god. Well, that certainly explains the dog… and the flirting… and the weirdness… ack! Now he probably thinks I don't like him back!' "Hey, Tony?"

"Yeah?" He couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye.

She reached out and grabbed his chin, bringing his eyes up to hers. "I like you too."

And then neither of them thought about the dog any more, because they were kissing, and neither of them had any reasoning capacity left.

A/N: Sorry for the abrupt ending, I had a bit of trouble with it. If you have ideas about how it SHOULD end, EMAIL them to me. Don't put them in a review, EMAIL them. If I see one I like, I might write it. If you like the ending, let me know, though. Those you can review. Thanks!


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